“I had to protect us,” Sheppard said, according to testimony Friday in Kalamazoo County District Court from Sheppard’s friend, Kenneth Langston.

Langston, who was called to the stand by Sheppard’s attorney, Thomas Hirsch, said he and two other people were at the apartment complex with Sheppard in the early hours of Oct. 21.

Prosecutors allege that the barrage of gunfire by Sheppard led to the death of Jante C. Mackerel, 23, who was struck in the head in a car and later pronounced dead at Bronson Methodist Hospital.

Sheppard is charged with one count of open murder, three counts of felony use of a firearm and two counts of attempted murder.

Hirsch, who called a total of two witnesses to the stand after Assistant Prosecutor Jeffrey Miller had finished his proofs, offered to District Court Judge Paul Bridenstine on Friday that his client acted out of self defense when he fired his weapon in October.

But Bridenstine said the question of whether Sheppard was acting out of a sense to protect himself and the friends that were with him should be left up to a jury and ordered Sheppard to stand trial, as charged, in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court.

A total of five witnesses were called to the stand Friday — three by Williams and two by Hirsch.

Khadijah Graves testified that she had driven Sheppard, Langston and another person to Stadium Drive Apartments on the morning of the fatal shooting.

When they arrived at the complex, Graves said another vehicle pulled up and that two people exited the vehicle and said they had guns, that they were from the city’s south side and were yelling, “Trap Money,” the name of a group from the south side.

Graves said the rants were aimed at a large crowd at the complex that considered themselves “northsiders.”

Graves said that moments later it appeared there was going to be a fight and, at some point, she saw Sheppard fire five to six gunshots “in different directions.”

She said Sheppard ran out of bullets after firing the rounds and she heard his gun “clicking.”

“I don’t think his intent was to kill anybody …” Graves testified.

She said that gunfire was followed by two to three quieter gunshots from someone else at the scene.

After the gunfire erupted, Graves said she and her friends got back into her vehicle and left the apartment complex.

Langston said he fled toward the entrance of the complex when he heard the gunfire and that’s where Graves picked him up as she was leaving.

Langston said he did not see who fired any of the rounds.

He also, under questioning from Hirsch, said that when he and his friends arrived at the complex they saw four men exit a vehicle yelling they were from the city’s south side and that two of the men were “playing with a gun.”

Langston also testified that he and Sheppard has seen the same vehicle earlier in the day on Stuart Avenue and that the vehicle’s occupants were “throwing signs” when he spotted it on Stuart.

After leaving the complex, Langston said Sheppard asked him to call Sheppard’s brother and that Langston later heard from Sheppard’s brother that Sheppard had turned himself in to Kalamazoo police.

In addition to the murder charge, Sheppard also is accused of shooting and injuring Richard Smith on Oct. 21. Investigators have also alleged that Sheppard aimed his handgun at another unknown victim and pulled the trigger but had run out of bullets.